Prince Harry Reveals The Real Reason He Turned To Drugs And Alcohol When He Was Younger
Ever since stepping back from his royal duties, Prince Harry has been on a media tear talking about his experiences with his family and his mental health. And quite frankly? He does not have very flattering things to say about growing up royal. In his new show with Oprah Winfrey 'The Me You Can't See,' Harry said he and his wife, Meghan Markle, felt stuck. "That feeling of being trapped within the family, there was no option to leave. Eventually when I made that decision for my family, I was still told, 'You can't do this,'" Harry recalled (via Daily Mail). "And it's like, 'Well how bad does it have to get until I am allowed to do this?' [Meghan] was going to end her life. It shouldn't have to get to that."
He also added that he felt "bullied into silence" when it came to speaking about his life and he blames his father for not making things right after his mother's death. In fact, the prince says that he didn't know how to handle his grief after his mother died, noting that he still hears the horses' hoofs from his mother's coffin being driven through the mall. That's why things got difficult as he got older, he explained, and why he looked for coping mechanisms.
This is why Harry turned to heavy drinking
In 'The Me You Can't See,' Prince Harry is very candid about his mental health and how he copes with anxiety. Now, he goes to therapy, but when he was younger, he turned to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate and cope with his mother's death. "I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling," the prince explained (via Daily Mail), noting he would drink a week's worth of alcohol in one night. He added, "not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something." Harry said, "Towards my late 20s, I was starting to ask questions of should I really be here? That was when I suddenly started going, 'You can't keep hiding from this.' ” Luckily for him, he's not hiding anymore, but now that he's started talking, mending his relationships with the royal family might be harder than ever.
In addition to talking about how London is a "trigger" for him, he also notes that most of his family members just want him to "play the game" to make his life easier. For Harry, it seems that was never going to be enough. Hopefully, he's better off now that he feels he can talk about it all.